Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/540

 508 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Taut II. through which the latter was derived from the former. They are moreover, the oldest churches in Northern France, which is sufficient to confirm this view. The character of this style will be understood from the plan and internal and external view of one of its typical examples, the Basse (Euvre at Beauvais (Woodcuts Nos. 373 and 374). It will be seen that this building consists of a nave and side-aisles, separated from each other by a range of plain arches resting on jjiers without either bases or capitals ; on one side the angles are cut off, so as to give a slightly ornamental character; on the other they are left square. 374. External and Internal Xiew of Basse Giuvre. (From Woillez.) The central aisle is twice the Avidth, and more than twice the height, of the lateral aisles, and has a well-defined clei-estory ; the roof, both of the central and side-aisles, is a flat ceiling of wood. The eastern end has been destroyed, but, judging from other examples, it probably consisted of three apses, a large one in the centre and a smaller one at the end of each aisle. The similarity of the form of this church to the Roman basilicas will be evident on referring to the representations of those buildings, more especially to that of San Vincenzo alle Tre Fontane (Woodcut No. 285), though the details have nothing in common except in the use of flat tiles between the cornices of the arches, which is singularly characteristic of Roman masonry. The points in which this exam])Ie is most evidently the source of some of the important peculiarities of the true Gothic, are the subordination of the side-aisles to the central